Professor's Sly Remark to Black Students: “Slaves Never Showed Up On Time”

A University of Kentucky professor is in the dog house for making racial slurs to African American students, by suggesting they were late for a class that he purposely started fifteen minutes early without notice.

According to Arlene Johnson, a freshman at the college, she came to class one day to find that a film was already in progress. She said that after class, she and another student asked professor Mark Wattier why the film had started before the official start time of the class, and she said he told them that when screening films, he typically started them 10-15 minutes before class.

“We said, ‘Well, we didn’t know that. It wasn’t on the syllabus, so we were unaware,’” Johnson said. “And then he said, ‘Well, it’s OK, I expect it of you guys anyway.’ We asked him, ‘What did that mean?’ And he said the slaves never showed up on time, so their owners often lashed them for it. He just didn’t have the right.”

According to several reports, the professor has since retired from his position.